Around the world and then some but not five continents!

[simongr]

AA7315 AKL-LAX

Now this was always going to be the “hard” flight (or so I thought). I knew before getting on board that it was a 743 – which meant nothing of any fun on board – no in seat power, no Skybed and no AVOD. I was prepared for this so when I got on board was not overly concerned (I had already ranted so why stress the FAs). The other pax however were fuming (guys maybe you should check your aircraft type BEFORE boarding). There was wailing and gnashing of teeth and much ranting that “this isn’t real business class” and “how can they dare charge full price for this???”. I settled down to my next glass of bubbles for take off. My plan was to sleep as much of this flight as possible given the lack of sleep the night before and the fact that I wanted to be awake for the LAX-JFK flight so that I would sleep in NYC. Well after a brief while the Customer Service Manager came round and apologised profusely for the poor aircraft and said that he would have offered everyone a bottle of wine if they weren’t connecting through from LAX.

Apart from the plane the flight was pretty pleasant – food was good but not exceptional – although my dory with saffron potatoes was missing the saffron potatoes…

A reasonable amount of sleep found me awake for the last two-three hours flying into LAX. Given the time zone changes and the fact that the “map” was counting upwards on the “miles to go” page I was a little confused.

Finally we make it down onto the ground. I had about a 2 hour connection here which is now about 1¼. On landing I looked around and started to wonder if we had come to the wrong airport – we seem to have parked somewhere north of Las Vegas – or at least that was what the bus ride felt like. Now here is an interesting thing. You let off all of your premium pax first to get on the bus. They then stand around waiting until everyone else gets on the bus and are now blocked in at the back of the bus when we get to disembark and go through immigration. I was still pretty relaxed as I had my boarding pass. Immigration queue wasn’t too bad and luggage was off relatively quickly – I just now had to brave security screening and find the AC again

 

[simongr]

AA0032 LAX-JFK

I am quickly up to security screening and all is going well until I hear “bag check”. Five minutes later they find someone who is qualified to do the check. The thing is that in my bag is the QF amenity kit – with its sealed bag of dermalogica – options are dump it or find a zip lock… It was dumped

Up to the AC and its pretty full – but there is just enough space to recharge the laptop for an hour and have a nice cold beer Its even after midday so that’s ok

Now is going to be my first experience of AA J class on a three class service. I get on board and am a little disappointed but not surprised. There is a huge amount of space though so that’s ok. Up in the air and out come the warm nuts and another cold beer. So far so good. Mind you as soon as that seat belt light goes out the recliner comes down. I swear the guy in front has found the only lie flat business class seat in the AA fleet – I could have played bongoes on his head – and was sorely tempted to. IFE is amazingly bad and when I find the in seat I realise that its not a normal socket. Ah well its time to read and not sleep!

Lunch is well – lets skip lunch shall we – not bad wine though. So I am determined no to sleep… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….zzzzzzzzzz… Well that didn’t work. A couple of hours sleep isn’t to bad and I hope wont affect me tonight.

At JFK I seem to walk almost to Manhattan to find the luggage carousels. After what seems like a very long wait my bags finally come crashing down off the carousel. And crashing is the operative word. I have just bought a $110 spinner case and the price showed in the damage to the bag. A quick trip to the baggage help desk informs me that they don’t cover damage to wheels – argh!

Ah well I just want to get to the hotel at this points. Thirty hours of travel is taking its toll on me.

 

[simongr]

The Crown Plaza at the United Nations

I have been warned already that this isn’t the best hotel and they were right. The check in desk guy is in the middle of trying to explain directions to some deaf guests and because they cant hear him and he cant figure out he needs to just get a simple map he gives up and serves me! My Corporate Amex is refused so I have to use my personal Amex. Not looking good so far. The room is small cell that I am concerned I am going to have to share with bubba and fight for the top bunk! There is no mini bar and room service stops at 10:30 – I checked in at 10:40!

Its time for a walk outside to get a maccas and a couple of cold beers. I am only outside for 2 mins when I realise how much I love this city. I don’t know why I just feel at home there immediately and this is only my second trip.

Back to the hotel for “dinner” and straight to bed. Three hours later I just about fall asleep at around 2AM. Four hours later I am wide awake! I have a few errands to run (Tiffany’s for mrsimongr, Bloomingadales for my nephew and the apple store and comic book store for me). I realise that I now need to rush back to the hotel to meet my compatriot from the UK for the first time prior to dinner at my boss’s house with the rest of the team. Thankfully my compatriot has brought the xbox games I ordered in the UK that I couldn’t get in Oz.

Dinner is pleasant but I am fast asleep in the car back to the city. Three days of very very successful is completed in NYC and next it’s the surprise trip to Cyprus!

 

[simongr]

AA0100 JFK-LHR

After having decided not to switch flights to LGA-BOS-LHR its only J for me. Now at this point I know what to expect on board so I am surprised this time. Only because of the space in the seat. I am 185cm and can’t even touch the seat in front of me!

I have purchased an in seat power adaptor so am all set to go .zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz yup it happened again. Dozing on and off for the entire flight – I think this time I just about managed to make it through dinner (slightly better than the domestic fare). Overall not a memorable flight – but the excitement came at heathrow.

I hadn’t realised or thought about the 1 bag baggage restrictions and finally got to security screening at LHR and had to go through the whole “can you condense that bag down into the other bag”. I only lost one bag of chips (I love ruffles sour cream and onion chips) and then queued up for xray screening. Luckily for me the BA staff were standing in front of the “this was for the short queue for club world pax” sign so only realised there was one after I had queued for 15 mins… Out through screening and I am finally ready for my LHR experience… however this is tempered slightly by my first experience being walking past the smokers room – not pleasant on any level.

Any way I am at T1 planning to grab a shower and jump on line after picking up a couple of things (teddy bear for the dogs and some Christmas decs and a bottle of Moet).

The BA lounge is ok – grabbed a shower and was ready to go to LCA.

 

[simongr]

BA0662 LHR-LCA

Its been a long time since I flew in Club Europe and I was a little shocked. It was very very small… But the breakfast was ok and I could only have 1 bottle of bubbles as I was driving at the other end. This is a fabulously exciting part of the trip for me. Surprising my mother and seeing my little nephew for the first time. Not much sleep on this flight, just a little TV on the laptop (lets not mention the IFE) and a bit of reading.

Finally I get to LCA and I rush to the hire car desk. If I thought the smoking was bad at LHR then I had forgotten what Cyprus was like. This is about my 6th trip to Cyprus. Everything I love about New York, I love the opposite of Cyprus – its relaxed, easy going, rural and even I slow down a little.

After what seemed like an age I get the keys to my upgraded Avis car (quite how a megane is an upgrade from an astra I am unsure) and it’s a little drive to Paphos.

Driving through Cyprus is interesting. It’s a little more built up since I was there in 2004 – but they still have finished the flyovers at Limassol… About an hour and a half later I am driving up the mountains to my parents village. I end up at my sisters house and wait for mum to arrive. They had already planned to be having dinner with my parents so as the door opened she was expecting anything… Thankfully my dad was there to catch her as her legs went

The surprise was complete!

I had two great full days in Cyprus. Spent a lot of time with my nephew and just relaxed a little. By the end of two days though I was ready to go home. I knew it was a long trip back with some tightish connections but it had been worth it to see the little fella!

 

[Altair]

I am only outside for 2 mins when I realise how much I love this city. I don’t know why I just feel at home there immediately and this is only my second trip.

I totally agree with you. NYC, Paris and Rome are the three cities that I love the most and for NYC I just do not know why....
Oh I am now subscribe for this thread and keenly await your next installment.

 

[simongr]

Thanks - I will be adding my final segments here - but also might add in my SYD-SIN-SYD and SYD-NRT-SYD trips to round out a massive (for me at least) year of travel.

 

[simongr]

Cyprus

I guess I can expand a little more on my Cyprus flying visit. Its been two years since I was last there. That time was with mrssimongr for her first trip there. We went to see my parents and the house that they were building. Sadly when we got there the house wasn’t finished. Devastating for my mum who was looking forward to sharing it with us. So this trip I was going to see the house finished for the first time. It is spectacular, up in the mountains overlooking vineyards. A truly peaceful place (except for the hunting season sounds of shot guns – but let’s gloss over that). The house is now finished and the village itself has been tidied up.

Two “doors” up the street there was a guy (with a donkey of course) making Zinvanir. Not my favourite tipple but a national drink there. Think petrol but not quite so tasty Now on the same block he has a winery making wine from the surrounding grapes. Nothing special – just simple village wine. Some of it made with the grapes from my parents 20 vines

Two days were spent looking after the little guy and spending time with my sister and parents. Very nice but I was itching to get home by the Sunday morning. It was time to be home – even though I knew it was going to be only for a few days.

Next stop LCA!

 

[simongr]

BA 0663 LCA-LHR

Now this was going to be the tiring trip. A quick flight to LHR then connections to HKG and home. A quick drive back to LCA – averaging just over the speed limit your honour

The return of the hire car was as painful as the collection and I just wanted to get into the lounge. Now I know I have complained here about the F lounge at Sydney – lets just say that the Exec lounge at LCA is no Sydney F lounge :shock: There is a smoking section IN the lounge. But on the upside they do have cold Keo

I did make a mistake on this flight and maybe have one or two of those little bottles of red too many

As such on landing at LHR I have no recall of which lounge I went to or what I did… oh wait yes I do!!!! On check in at LCA they couldn’t give me a BP for my HKG-SYD flight. I found this a bit odd and tried repeatedly on line but it was just fracked. At LHR I made the quick transfer to T3 – pretty easy really and headed down a dingy corridor looking for the CX lounge.

At the lounge I begged and pleaded for a BP but they said they would look at it for me whilst I relaxed with a beer (well they didn’t say I should have a beer but I took it as read). The CX lounge was ok – small and narrow but ok and actually relatively peaceful. I didn’t have much time here – about 2 hours from landing to boarding. I jumped on line to share my panic regarding the lack of BP but with the beer swilling around I was getting coughy that I was due for an Op-UP

Finally we are called so its off home on my first CX experience – always wanted to fly CX as their owners used to be one of my clients.

 

[simongr]

CX0254 LHR-HKG

Now on this flight I must stay awake so I can sleep on my way into Sydney. So far the cabin is nice, the staff friendly and the seat is ok. I sit down for take off and get ready to experience that great CX food that people talk about. A couple of minutes to take off and I am ready zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… zzzzzzzzzzzzz…

Well that didn’t go according to plan At least breakfast was nice

At HKG I am starting to panic and get excited at the prospect of my first Op-Up. Out of the plane and I have 60 mins door to door. So after the three mile hike to find the transit desk and get my J BP (guess I shouldn’t bank on an Op-Up) I try and find these infamous CX lounges.

Through security (I got a bit grumpy at this but in retrospect I should know what I am doing by now. I find the lounge – another 3 mile trek it feels like. At this point I don’t give a cough about the lounge, the food, the showers or my next seat – I just want to be home. 30K miles in 2 ½ weeks is getting to be a little much for me.

The lounge is nice – I am not sure if I was in the Wing or Pier (business class ticket) but it was nice. FREE wireless internet – when will everyone else get that???? Just time for a couple of beers and its off again. Now this time I will sleep!

 

[simongr]

CX0100 HKG-SYD

This time the seat is not quite as good. At the front of the second cabin – so leg room (1 am 185cm) is a little restricted. Being in the second cabin we get served last as well – so far not the best.

I am also wide awake so I know by now that Tuesday is going to be a tough day.

The G&T on the plane is nice again (more on the G&T quality on later flights) and dinner is sadly disappointing. I keep making the mistake of choosing the fish and every time its dry. They have run out of the chilli prawns that I would have tried. The wine is slow to flow – again a reflection of being in J cabin 2

The AVOD is great but I am restless and none of the movies inspire me so I watch a little TV on my laptop. Its only a short flight so I try and doze for a little while – but due to the slow service, the big sleep on the prior flight, the lack of champagne on take off (my fault I grabbed an apple juice rather than asking for bubbles), the limited beer at HKG I am restless all night.

I get into SYD at about 6:30AM on Tuesday – my first experience of early morning into SYD and the immigration line is a little annoying – as well as the quarantine line. By this point I just want to get home. Although I know when I get home I will be home alone as mrssimongr will be at work getting home at about 6PM.

But I walk through the door at about 8AM, the dogs are there to greet me so all in all its good to be back – but part of me knows that on Sunday its Singapore – and I am hoping the F upgrade is going to come through.

 

[NM]

The lounge is nice – I am not sure if I was in the Wing or Pier (business class ticket) but it was nice. FREE wireless internet – when will everyone else get that???? Just time for a couple of beers and its off again. Now this time I will sleep!

Both The Wing and The Pier lounges have F and J sections. The Wing is located opposite gate 2 and you take a lift up to the mezzanine level after presenting the BP on the departures level.

The Pier is located near gate 67 (or thereabouts) and you go down an escalator or lift to the lounge which is actually located on the arrivals level.

The Wing is larger than The Pier but both have similar facilities, with the notable difference being The Wing has the Cabanas while The Pier has Day Rooms for the FLoungers.

 

[simongr]

OK - I went down so I must have been in the Pier - and I was nearish gate 60++

I think I got confused as there were two entrances to the Pier and I thought one was wing and one was pier - I guess I am not used to there being two quality lounges at an airport

 

[NM]

OK - I went down so I must have been in the Pier - and I was nearish gate 60++

I think I got confused as there were two entrances to the Pier and I thought one was wing and one was pier - I guess I am not used to there being two quality lounges at an airport

That would explain the 3 mile walk!

 

[simongr]

I shall use that walk this weekend to build up my appetite for the dim sum

 

[serfty]

Stuff the walk, get some additional Lounge time by taking the "Automated People Mover".

 

[serfty]

For more information, Click here for a "Virtual Walk" from the HKIA website.

Select "Departures", click on the dot near Gate 10 then click on the "To West Hall" Arrow.

There's an 11 Mbyte video (.wmv) that may be of interest.